November 1, 2008 | News | Wines of the Month
Weingut Joh. Jos. Prüm crafted a stunning series of Auslese in 2007, with the Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese GK one of our candidates for Auslese of the vintage.
True to the house style, Manfred Prüm, now assisted by his daughter Katharina, relied on long cold fermentations for his wines in 2007. The result is that many Spätlese and Auslese bottlings, including the auction ones, are currently heavily marked by notes of reduction (the famous "Prüm stink"), much more so than in the past few recent vintages.
While this may disconcert at first, it is actually a classical part of the evolution pattern at this Estate (also the magnificent 2002er Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese Auction tasted recently started life as a quite reductive beast). This "stink" blows away with airing and recedes as the wines mature.
The inner balance of the wines makes us confident that these wines will turn into magnificent moments of wine tasting with a couple of years of aging. In particular, the Auslese are superb and will offer much pleasure at maturity. Among these, the Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese GK has been a true stand-out in our recent tastings.
2007er
Joh. Jos. Prüm
Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese GK
12 08
95+
This non Auction Auslese GK shows (for a botrytis affected GK) a surprising light, almost green colour and has a bit of CO2 on opening. This bottle is no exception to the 2007 Prüm portfolio and the nose shows at first some reduction that could turn off some tasters which are not familiar with the Prüm wines. As we expected, with extensive airing, the wine starts to reveal wonderfully fresh and juicy flavors of white flowers, grapefruit and peaches with a hint of mint. The botrytis is very clean, precise and incredibly transparent, which allows the slatey side of the wine to come through at this early age. The wine shows great play and texture on the palate: there is a light and comfortable feeling of creaminess with citrus zest and apricot flower. The finish is very long with a delicate spiciness and superb freshness.
We had this bottle on several occasions over the last month and could follow its development over several days. The wine had simply continued to gain in complexity and precision. While it is clearly a wine that will benefit from aging, nobody would be blamed for already opening this say at Thanksgiving (the great thing is that, given the constitution of the wine, one could still serve the remainder at Christmas!). However, this bottle should be opened well in advance (at least 12 hours) to let it breathe and develop. As with all great wines, there is one major criticism to be made: the bottle is far too small (as you will undoubtedly notice for yourself). 2017-2040+
© Text by Mosel Fine Wines "The Independent Review of Mosel Riesling ... and beyond!"
Disclaimer: Mosel Fine Wines is an independent publication and has no commercial relationship with any Estate, association or organization featured in this article.
